When T meets the Ks...

April 30, 2012 by Sugar and Spice | 19 Comments

So, we met Tharani, who is always on a roller-coaster ride. Oops! It should be the other way around. Tharani, who lives way away from my parents’ place endured the massively draining Madras summer, a few kilometers of bike riding, later a long public bus ride, a short auto ride and two fleets of stairs **uff** to meet the famous(?) Keer and Kau. Erm, and also me.

The story goes like this. Me being me, lazed around the first few weekends at Amma’s home, claiming to be sick, tired and whatnot. And finally realised that we would be missing something dear if we didn’t catch up with the Madras bloggers and one Bangalore blogger who promised to be in Madras but finally gave ‘galtha’! The lazy me only thought about it. The rest of the work was done by Tharani. SMSing, e-mailing, calling and basically, all the other ‘ings’ of fixing the time and venue. Vidya was also to be met but sadly, she couldn’t make it due to some unforeseen circumstances at her end. Well.. There’s always next time. Wait.. I did speak to her. That aside, I spoke to Varun who said in his sweety cute voice – ‘aathuku vaango’! Sure Kanna.. Next time, okay!

Anyway, coming back to our story, Tharani after her rides in scooter, auto, bus and the like reached home at around 12 in the afternoon. As soon as she entered, Kaushik went running to her calling her, ‘Vasu paati’! No.. Don’t blame me. It was just that he had a hangover of my MIL, whose place we had inhabited for that long. For the girl who doesn’t wish to be called ‘aunty’ but ‘akka’ instead, it was big disappointment. Then, as soon as Keer and Kau saw some beeeg gifts which she had got for them, they began to fondly call her ‘akka’. Talk about a materialistic world!

Tharani akka bought two boxes of play dough for the little ones and she could see it being put to optimal use just before her eyes. Nothing could stop them from having some decency of opening a guest’s gift after they’ve left. While I was considering ways and means of teaching the brats some and I mean SOME etiquette, Tharani akka was finding this act ‘cute’. What do I say?!

The rest of the time being with this cute bubbly girl was spent talking about the this-s and that-s of life. Married life. Professional life. Future life. And so on. Meanwhile, Keer and Kau were trying to make a mess of the wonderfully nice gift given by Tharani Akka with me, all the while, trying to restrain them from doing so. And finally she uttered those golden words which would make anyone who sees the atrocities of Keer and Kau would do – ‘Seeing Keer and Kau and the helpless you makes me re-think the decision about having a kid!’ ‘But.. But..!’, I told her, ‘Being helpless is a part of the job description of being a mother!’ No, fellow mothers?!

While doing all this, my head was smacking itself for ideas of providing some food to her. The fact was that I was just in at my mom’s place from my in-laws’ and didn’t know a thing about what was available or not. The only edible thing I saw were some mangoes and I tried to cut one of them with a knife available. The poor thing, aka the knife, was so blunt that the mango could cut it into two. Sigh. At this point in time did Amma arrive. Talk about timing, I say. Well.. She took her ‘arival-manai’ to cut some mangoes, cucumber and managed to buy some cookies too. Phew. Finally, Tharani was given something to eat! Until today, I keep smacking myself for not insisting on her to have lunch at home. I should have. Maybe, **that** feat is left for her trip to Hyderabad, where she can feast on my cooking. What say, Tharnai paati.. Oops.. Akka!

Two hours or so (I really can’t remember how long. Time just whizzed past us!) went off in a jiffy and it was time bid adieu. With her inviting us over to her place during our next visit to Madras, we (Keer, Kau and me) went down two floors to wave her a bye. The three of them kept waving and waving and waving and finally, Tharani left for home.. It sure was a fun time.

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Tharani - I always thought it was a cliched phrase used just for writing about feeling at ease meeting for the first time. I always thought that there must be an ice-breaking session before one talks freely to another. It has always been like that with me. But this time, I was wrong. And how! Talking to you and being with you was as if spending time with a sister who has just come back home on a holiday, reminiscing the past and talking about the future. Such fun it was, this meet. Thank you for taking time out to come and meet us. Really. Thanks a lot!

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